NBA 2K11 News Post

Mike Wang Returns to 2K Sports: NBA 2K Series (ESPN)

12:17 AM - February 2, 2010 by iamemmittsmith

It's official. Mike Wang has returned to 2K Sports as Lead Gameplay Designer for NBA 2K11. ESPN has some of the details.

Quote:


	"When I went over there (to EA), a lot of it was for personal reasons. I wanted to try something new, try a new challenge. But after being there and spending some time over at EA, it was clear that they do things a different way, and in a way it's just inefficient and just not the place to be to make the best games," said Wang in a recent conference call with ESPN to announce his return. "When I went there, I immediately missed VC (Visual Concepts), and it's just one of those things where I tried to stick it out as long as I could, but I wanted to come back. With some of the creative decisions over at EA, it just made it difficult to stay there. They just want to make a different game than I had a vision for. So I reached out to (2K's senior vice president of sports development) Greg Thomas and he was gracious enough to have me back."

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Member Comments

# 21 ifriedrice @ 02/02/10 01:27 AM

Most important thing I hope he brings to NBA 2K is great controls. 2K's slow responsiveness can and should apply to bigger and older players, but not to the quick guards. Players like Rose and Rondo should be able to turn and stop on a dime while players like Dampier and D-Howard shouldn't, and it's obvious that Wang knows that in the way he had Live's guards moving.

# 22 Blzer @ 02/02/10 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcxiv


	Dont know who follows the baseball gaming section, but i posted in there, that there would be news that would be shocking in regards to 2K and somewhat EA. People thought i was talking about football (i wish i was) Well this was it. lol

Unfortunately, as a basketball gamer but an even bigger baseball gamer, I don't know what this means for us in the end. I'm not going to say that one person can't make the game better, but "where are the guarantees?" is all I'm asking.

# 23 blues rocker @ 02/02/10 01:29 AM

i wonder if Mike will begin posting on these forums again as "2k producer." I hope so - his willingness to talk to the people is a great quality. I hope he takes some of the good things they did with Live 10 and brings them to 2k 11.

# 24 SageInfinite @ 02/02/10 01:32 AM

Great news to hear Mike is back. He is only one man, but like my man Wilton Knight said "One man can make a difference....."

# 25 LionsFanNJ @ 02/02/10 01:46 AM

If Mike has the team focus on certain aspects of the game that Live did well, such as the half court offenses, player movement, Effective defensive play I'll be happy.

I just worry in changing the player movement is a bigger investment of time than we all think.

# 26 Gotmadskillzson @ 02/02/10 01:59 AM

Wang was a general among generals. Wang presence was clearly visible in Live. Too bad EA chose not to go into the direction he was trying to make them go. Because Live 10 was a huge improvement over 9.

Looks like EA wants to go that arcade route again with their sports games like they did during 98 - 04.

# 27 SageInfinite @ 02/02/10 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Court_vision


	It's not so much Beluba himself man... It's the whole fact that EA went and poached a well known harcore SIM producer. That basically said "we are back". EA has then spent two years on these forums selling the whole "vision" of the new LIVE series. For that same producer to walk out mid way and say "hey, you can't make a serious game over there...they've basically got no idea, there's too many people trying to interfere"... Is pretty 'significant'. Pretty much the ultimate slap in the face. Game over in a lot of ways.

I have to agree here. Like I said in the other forum, this right here just made it THAT much harder for EA to catch 2k. 2k10 post patch is a pretty solid game without Mike, now with him 2k might return to its "glory" days of domination in almost every gamers eyes.

We keep hearing different things out of EA's camp, either way it doesn't look good for EA. Things just got that much harder. NBA Live 10 had a decent foundation, but it needs to be way more than decent to catch 2k. It's great to have competition though!

# 28 noshun @ 02/02/10 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SageInfinite


	Great news to hear Mike is back. He is only one man, but like my man Wilton Knight said "One man can make a difference....."

Yo Sage you are killing me with Knight Rider quotes man.......

# 29 SageInfinite @ 02/02/10 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noshun


	Yo Sage you are killing me with Knight Rider quotes man.......

# 30 PrimoReemo @ 02/02/10 02:45 AM

Mike Wang is back....hiphiphooray!!!....I guess

The only real shock I gather from this are the comments about EA. I was already probably not going to buy NCAA Football 11 but I REALLY might not now. Otherwise I hopes he gives the development team so help and direction so that the have have a much better game. I also hope he doesn't try to remove My Player because it is a good mode.

I know this is his career and all but it seems as if there's no loyalty. He might get back to the 2k Team, decide he doesn't want to be there either and go work on NBA The Life and take all the ideas there

# 31 Jonesy @ 02/02/10 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Court_vision


	It's not so much Beluba himself man... It's the whole fact that EA went and poached a well known harcore SIM producer. That basically said "we are back". EA has then spent two years on these forums selling the whole "vision" of the new LIVE series. For that same producer to walk out mid way and say "hey, you can't make a serious game over there...they've basically got no idea, there's too many people trying to interfere"... Is pretty 'significant'. Pretty much the ultimate slap in the face. Game over in a lot of ways.

Great post as always mate. I agree with everything you said 100%.

Sure it's only one man but he's pretty much the guy when it comes to being synonymous with sim bball gaming so it speaks volumes that he's back with 2k so quickly imo. Too many suits at EA trying to come up with gimmicks, worrying about marketing and focus groups and not focusing on the core gameplay it seems.

# 32 Pappy Knuckles @ 02/02/10 04:41 AM

I find it funny to see so many people who were dogging 2K10 when it first came out, and said that Live was better, are now playing 2K exclusively. Live is my game of choice this year, and I really hope that they don't fall back off now that this dude has jumped ship. I've owned every single NBA2K, but that **** was just hard to play this time around. I'm a little worried about the direction of both products, honestly. I guess we'll see how it plays out next year.

And regardless of what Wang said about EA's practices, in 2009 they produced some of the best sports titles that I can ever recall them dropping in a single year. If 2010 is anything like that, I'll be very happy with them once again.

# 33 tabulaRasa @ 02/02/10 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by youvalss


	Every time Wang goes another place the 2K forum goes nuts. Why all this fuss? It's only one guy, as good as he is, he's only one. He doesn't make the game wonderfull or awful himself.

Funny thing, I remember the EA guys just went bananas and thought Mike Wang was the Guru of all things basketball.

# 34 Sinner @ 02/02/10 07:17 AM

This is good news, having as many talented people working on the 2k series as possible can only make the game better. You always think the grass is greener on the othe rside till you cross the fence, and then you find out the truth. I think this is worse than when he left 2k cause over all he didnt have the bad things to say like he did about EA. Still thinking there is more because Simballers comments made it seem like it was something more...but maybe not.

hmmm so basically Mike was a double Agent?

..............I kid heh....Welcome back Mike!

# 35 DaveDQ @ 02/02/10 08:16 AM

Check out the differences in how the two company's leadership responds to this...

Senior VP of 2K Sports, Greg Thomas...
"Over at EA, you have so many levels of management, and you have somebody up there looking at unit sales and how 2K is kicking their asses, so now they want to change things in a great way because they can't afford to sell this many units through a three-year plan or a five-year plan. Here, we're always trying to do the same thing, we're always trying to make the best basketball simulation we can."

EA Sports Spokesman...
"We appreciate Mike's contribution to the "NBA Live" franchise and wish him well in future endeavors. "NBA Live 11" pre-production is well underway and the team is poised to raise the bar on quality, innovation and authenticity."

I don't want to take sides or promote one over the other, but look at how hollow and lifeless EA's comments are. You can almost see that one person didn't come up with that. You get this feeling that comment had to be cleared and filtered before it was made. Of course, EA is stuck being the reactive one here, while 2K gets to be ride on their high sales and the fact that Wang is coming back, but still, EA just proves Wang's statements true about the direction of leadership with such a shallow response.

EA is going to make me despise the word "innovation" by year's end.

# 36 Hassan Darkside @ 02/02/10 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveDQ


	Check out the differences in how the two company's leadership responds to this... Senior VP of 2K Sports, Greg Thomas... "Over at EA, you have so many levels of management, and you have somebody up there looking at unit sales and how 2K is kicking their asses, so now they want to change things in a great way because they can't afford to sell this many units through a three-year plan or a five-year plan. Here, we're always trying to do the same thing, we're always trying to make the best basketball simulation we can." EA Sports Spokesman... "We appreciate Mike's contribution to the "NBA Live" franchise and wish him well in future endeavors. "NBA Live 11" pre-production is well underway and the team is poised to raise the bar on quality, innovation and authenticity." I don't want to take sides or promote one over the other, but look at how hollow and lifeless EA's comments are. You can almost see that one person didn't come up with that. You get this feeling that comment had to be cleared and filtered before it was made. Of course, EA is stuck being the reactive one here, while 2K gets to be ride on their high sales and the fact that Wang is coming back, but still, EA just proves Wang's statements true about the direction of leadership with such a shallow response. EA is going to make me despise the word "innovation" by year's end.

Funny. A lot of people here would consider 2k's comment immature and childish while EA's is more professional sounding. All you have to do is look back at the "beef" around the initial release of the two games.

But all in all, this is great news. One needs to look no further than the overall consensus of how Live has progressed the past two years and 2k has more or less stagnated.

# 37 tabulaRasa @ 02/02/10 08:34 AM

NBA2k10 rocks, can�t believe there were any doubts

# 38 DaveDQ @ 02/02/10 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruff Ryder


	Funny. A lot of people here would consider 2k's comment immature and childish while EA's is more professional sounding. All you have to do is look back at the "beef" around the initial release of the two games. But all in all, this is great news. One needs to look no further than the overall consensus of how Live has progressed the past two years and 2k has more or less stagnated.

I don't think Wang has said anything childish or immature. It's really no different than what he initially said about 2K when he left for Live. Now, if he continues to go on about things, then yes, it's silly. Here you have two very different responses from leadership, not Wang.

I enjoyed Live this year and do agree it has made great progress, especially with gameplay controls. They also continue to deliver on the online functionality with team play etc. That's an area 2K has failed at. My comments though are about the obvious lacking in leadership that EA has with the title. Not EA as a whole, although I can see how this would spill into other titles.

Like Pappy mentioned, EA has put out some good titles this year. I have enjoyed most of their sports games. I just happen to think those comments show 2K's perspective is more refined with basketball.

# 39 ctu130 @ 02/02/10 08:54 AM

Mike never left 2k , he worked as a spy to get info from NBA LIVE ..

<_< lol

# 40 WTF @ 02/02/10 08:58 AM

Very big news indeed. I liked the direction Live was heading... Can't wait to see what Rob and Mike are working up for 2k11

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